Birchwood Residential Care Home

Updated 24 March 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors, a nurse specialist advisor and an Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Birchwood Residential Care Home is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We reviewed the information we already held about the service. This included their registration report and notifications. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 13 July 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records. This included 8 people's care records. We looked at 8 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed. We reviewed multiple medicine administration records. We spoke with 11 members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager, administrator, 2 team leader, 3 care workers, 2 kitchen staff and 1 maintenance person. We also spoke with 9 people who used the service and 4 relatives about their experience of the care provided.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at care quality assurance records, incidents and accidents, and, policies and procedures.

Updated 24 March 2023

About the service

Birchwood Residential Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to 44 people. The service provides support to older people and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 43 people using the services.

Birchwood Residential Care Home is purpose built to accommodate 44 people. The service is on 2 levels with 5 separate units. Each unit has separate adapted facilities. There are dining and common areas on each unit and adapted bathrooms.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Since our last inspection, the registered manager had taken action to improve staffing level. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe. People and relatives were happy with staffing level. They told us staff were kind and caring. The provider had a safe staff recruitment process in place. This ensured that staff were properly checked and supported with induction and training. People received their medicines as prescribed and medicines were managed safely. The service was clean, and people were protected from the risk of infection.

Risks to people were assessed and systems put in place to ensure people were safe. Staff knew how to identify and report incidents of abuse.

There was a positive culture at the service and people benefited from being supported by happy staff which was reflected in the atmosphere at the service. Staff turnover was very low, which supported people to receive consistent care from staff who knew them well. Staff told us they enjoyed their job and making a positive difference to someone's life.

Governance and auditing processes had been implemented to enable the register manager and provider to monitor the service and drive improvements.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

At the last inspection the service was rated Requires Improvement (published 28 November 2019) and there were breaches of Regulation 18 (staffing) and Regulation 17 (good governance). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 19 and 20 September 2019. Breaches of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve staffing and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Birchwood Residential Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.